Moldavian/Irish swimmer Ion Lazarenco Tiron completed his sixth Oceans Seven swim with a Tsugaru Channel crossing from Hokkaido to Honshu.
In addition to an 8-day 235 km stage swim in his native Moldova and an Ice Mile in his adopted Ireland in 3.3ºC (37.9ºF) water, he has completed crossings of the Strait of Gibraltar (2014 in 4 hours 41 minutes), the English Channel (2014 in 13 hours 34 minutes), the North Channel (2015 in 16 hours 23 minutes in 11-12ºC water), the Catalina Channel (2016 in 12 hours 1 minute), the Molokai Channel (2016 in 18 hours 11 minutes), and the Tsugaru Channel in 11 hours 20 minutes today.
With his wife and Captain Mizushima on his escort boat, his crossing was impressively straightforward [see below].
Plotting of his course across the Tsugaru Current and 19.5 km channel in northern Japan is courtesy of Masuyuki Moriya of Ocean Navi:
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.